When Dee’s twin sister goes missing, she returns to her hometown to finish the last of her senior year of high school while the search for Beth is on. Right after arriving at her mom's, she quickly discovers that she may no longer know her own sister after their parent’s divorce separated them. Restless, Dee searches for Beth and finds herself caught up in the race to save the pinelands in the name of building a pipeline. The more she becomes involved, the more she thinks her sister’s environmental activism may be the key to finding out what happened to her… unless it turns out to be the local cryptid she just discovered is real!
After checking out one of Tara’s other books, I finally picked this up and started it. We follow Dee while she searches for her missing sister and becomes involved in the efforts to save the pinelands. Along the way, we discover a local cryptid is real, and Dee is about to find out if they’re her friend or foe! First off, the artwork is absolutely phenomenal and really helps bring the story to life. I think it will be hard for any reader to not notice how stunning the artwork is!
The story has a lot of depth with Dee’s home situation with divorced parents who are fighting like nothing has changed, Beth’s disappearance, grief, and a huge dose of environmentalism. There’s even more, but you’ll have to find that out for yourself! However, I think the environmental activism would have been far more fitting if Dee and her sister were in college rather than high school. Because of this, it feels like two different stories mashed together and the activism plot feels super out of place at times.
While I loved the book, I just wish it didn’t feel like two completely different stories collided at times. I really like the environmental activism plot, but how huge of a plot it was seemed shoehorned into a story about sibling bonds, stress, grief, and betrayal. I think the activism plot should’ve either been the main plot of a different story or scaled back while still remaining important to the story. Otherwise, it was a good read, so prepare yourself to be emotionally wrecked.
